Password Plus and Super Password
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| Password Plus | |
|---|---|
 Password Plus opening title. |
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| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Bob Stewart |
| Developed by | Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions |
| Starring | Allen Ludden (1979-1980) Bill Cullen (1980) Tom Kennedy (1980-1982) |
| Narrated by | Gene Wood |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 801 (1 unaired) |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Six cameras, later five |
| Running time | 30 minutes (with commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Picture format | NTSC |
| Original run | January 8, 1979 – March 26, 1982 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
| Super Password | |
|---|---|
 Title card for Super Password |
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| Genre | Game show |
| Created by | Bob Stewart |
| Developed by | Mark Goodson Productions |
| Starring | Bert Convy |
| Narrated by | Rich Jeffries (1984) Gene Wood (1984-1989) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 1,151 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multiple-camera setup |
| Running time | 30 minutes (with commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Picture format | NTSC |
| Original run | September 24, 1984 – March 24, 1989 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Password Plus and Super Password are American game shows that were revivals of the original CBS and ABC game show Password (1961-1967; 1971-1975). Both Password Plus and Super Password had the same format, but subtle nuances separated the two shows.
Password Plus and Super Password aired on the NBC television network, and were taped on Stage 3 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California.
As with the previous editions, Password Plus was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production, and Super Password was a Mark Goodson Production.
The original title of Password Plus was Password '79, a la Match Game's annual title change upon the new year. However thanks to Carol Burnett's remarks on the new format; "this is more than Password, it's Password Plus," the term 'Password Plus' stuck and her modifed remark was used by announcer Gene Wood to open the show.
Password Plus ran from January 8, 1979 until March 26, 1982 for 801 shows. Super Password's run lasted for 1,151 installments, from September 24, 1984, to March 24, 1989.
Password Plus won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show in 1982, the same year its run ended.
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[edit] Crew
[edit] Hosts
Password Plus was hosted by original Password host Allen Ludden from January 1979 to April 1980, when he had to take a leave of absence from the show due to stomach cancer. Bill Cullen, who was hosting Chain Reaction at the time, took over as substitute host for a month while Ludden recovered. Ludden returned in May, but by October, had suffered a stroke as well as having his cancer recur, and was forced to retire; he would never appear on television again before his 1981 death (though he did do a phone-in on The Mike Douglas Show and voice-overs for some Los Angeles bank commercials shortly before passing). Because Cullen had recently begun hosting the Goodson-packaged Blockbusters, Tom Kennedy took over the podium and remained host until Plus ended.
Tom Kennedy was considered to host Super Password, but was already busy emceeing Body Language on CBS, therefore, Bert Convy was tapped as the new host,[citation needed] and did so for the entire run.
[edit] Announcers
Gene Wood was the regular announcer on both Password Plus and Super Password. Johnny Olson, Bob Hilton, John Harlan, and Rich Jeffries substituted for him on some episodes of Password Plus, including a stretch in 1981 when Wood was recovering from an accident. Rich Jeffries filled in on occasion in 1981 and 1982 on Password Plus then announced on the first fifty episodes of Super Password in 1984 and, along with Hilton, would substitute occasionally afterwards. Also, John Harlan filled in on occasion in 1985 on Super Password, and Bob Hilton filled in on occasion in 1984, 1987 and 1988.
[edit] Game play
Password Plus and Super Password had almost identical rules.
Two teams, each comprised of a contestant and a celebrity, competed against each other. The object, as on the original Password, was for the clue-giving partner to try to get the receiving partner to guess a given word (the "password"). The giving partner on the first team offered a one-word clue, to which the receiving partner was allowed one guess; there were brief time limits for both the clue and the guess. Teams alternated giving one-word clues until the password was guessed, or until each side had given two clues (three in the early days of Password Plus until June 15, 1979). Giving an illegal clue (multiple words, using over-expressive gestures, forms of the password, made-up words, etc.) forfeited the receiver's turn to guess, as did having clue-giving time expire without giving a clue.
The new element of the revivals was the "Password Puzzle". Each password, once revealed, became one of five clues referring to a person, place or thing. The passwords themselves were not worth any money; only the puzzle affected the scores. A guesser who correctly guessed a password was given a guess at the answer to the puzzle. A password that was not guessed by either player was added to the board without a guess at the puzzle. For the final password in a puzzle, if the guesser was incorrect, their partner was given a guess as well. On Password Plus, the puzzle would be thrown out if the partner failed to guess; on Super Password, the opposing team members would each be given a guess as well. If the final password in a puzzle was not guessed, the answer to the puzzle was revealed, and a new puzzle was played. Correctly guessing the puzzle netted the contestant money; any remaining clues would be revealed and a new puzzle would be played until one contestant had enough money to win the game.
Like the ABC run of Password, the first clue-giver for each password on Password Plus had the option to give the first clue or pass to the other team. Originally, the team that didn't get the previous password was given the option, but this changed a few months into the run. This option was eliminated on Super Password.
Beginning in April 23, 1979, two rules were added to Password Plus: The first was the disallowing of direct opposites of the password (e.g. "loose" for "tight") as clues. The second rule was if the clue-giving partner failed to give a clue, or say "pass" or "play" within the time limit, the opposing team was given control, and was allowed two clues for the word. Super Password did not use either of these changes.
[edit] Payoff
Originally on Password Plus, the first team to accumulate $300 was the winner. The first two puzzles were worth $100 each, with each subsequent puzzle worth $200 until a winner was crowned.
Towards the end of Password Plus's run, the goal became $500, with the first three puzzles being worth $100 and the remainder worth $200. This increased the minimum number of puzzles that needed to be played in a game from three to four. The contestants also switched celebrity partners after the third puzzle; before the change, the champion would switch celebrity partners at the start of the next game.
Super Password had a set goal of $500 throughout its run, with puzzles that started at $100 and increased in value by $100 until the fourth and final puzzle, worth $400. The contestants would switch partners after the CA$HWORD, which followed the second ($200) puzzle.
[edit] Alphabetics/Super Password
The winning team would go on to play for a cash prize in the bonus round, called "Alphabetics" on Password Plus and, initially, "Super Password" (later simply referred to as "the End Game") on Super Password.
The gameplay of the round was the same on both shows: The round featured 10 passwords beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet (A-J, B-K, etc.). The celebrity was always the clue-giver; they were shown only the current password until it was guessed or they passed. They had to give as many one-word clues as they could until the contestant guessed the password; they could give sentences, but had to pause distinctly between words. For the period on Password Plus in which opposites were forbidden, this was enforced in Alphabetics as well. There was a 60-second time limit; if the contestant guessed all ten words, they won the jackpot; otherwise, they won $100 per correct guess.
On Password Plus, the grand prize was originally a flat $5,000, with each illegal clue reducing its potential value by one fifth of the total ($1,000), but saying the word accidentally forfeits the grand prize automatically. Towards the end of the show's run, the bonus round was played for an accumulating jackpot, which would start at $5,000 and increase by that much each time it was not won, up to a limit of $50,000 (which was never reached). Illegal clues still reduced the pot by one fifth (e.g.: a $30,000 pot would have $6,000 deducted for each illegal clue), but this was later changed to a flat $2,500 reduction in late 1981. By the final episode, the one-fifth reduction had returned.
Super Password's bonus game was played for the same accumulating pot, but illegal clues of any sort took that password out of play and cost the contestant any chance at the jackpot (though the end game would continue for $100 per password). Also, NBC imposed no limit as to how high the pot could go. The top prize ever awarded was $55,000, which was won twice. On three other occasions, the pot reached $50,000 before it was won.
[edit] CA$HWORD
Super Password instituted an additional bonus during the main game which was played for an accumulating cash jackpot every game after the $200 puzzle. The celebrity was given a more difficult password displayed within a prop that host Bert Convy affectionately called the "Magic Toaster". The celebrity acted as the clue-giver and the team had three clues and guesses to get the word and win the jackpot. The jackpot started at $1,000 and increased by that amount each day until claimed. There was no limit as to how high the pot could go; the highest it ever reached was $12,000. If at any time an illegal clue was given, it automatically ended the CA$HWORD round.
On the final episode of Super Password, Betty White destroyed the Magic Toaster after she failed to win the CA$HWORD bonus with her contestant. This was the second time the prop was destroyed, as Bert Convy accidentally threw the first Toaster in a 1986 episode after Edie McClurg gave an illegal clue by saying part of the password.
[edit] Tournaments
Super Password held its one and only tournament of champions in 1985. In it, eight of the top winners competed. Front-game rules were identical to the regular season with no Ca$hword played throughout the tournament. First-round matches consisted of only one game, with the winners playing Super Password for $2,500. The semi-final and final matches were best-of-three game matches. In the semi-finals, the first win by a player gave the contestant a chance at $2,500 in Super Password, and winning the match sent that player to the finals and gave the player a chance at $5,000 in Super Password. The winner of the tournament won $25,000 and a chance to double it in Super Password. The overall champion, Natalie Steele, became Password's all-time big winner (only due to this tournament), earning $106,000.
Both shows also held an all-star week with various stars playing for charity. The endgame was played for $5,000 to be split between the partners' respective charities. Super Password's Ca$hword was worth $1,000. When played on P+, a $5,000 bonus was awarded to the one (or more) player(s) with the highest single total.
Every year, Super Password also held a "Tournament of Losers." In it, players who had won nothing on their previous appearances returned to play in a week-long tournament. The Ca$hword was worth $1,000, and the end game was worth $5,000 all week; the overall winner of the tournament won an additional $10,000. (These episodes have aired on GSN)
[edit] Merchandise
Three editions of the Password Plus home board game were made by Milton Bradley in the early 1980s. [1]
A Super Password video game was released for DOS and the Commodore 64 in the 1980s. A version for the NES was planned but never surfaced. Also, in the late 1990s, a Super Password hand-held game was released.[2] In the 1991 movie Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, a character makes a reference to a Super Password home game, possibly implying a board game, which was never released.
[edit] Episode status
All episodes of Password Plus and Super Password are intact, and both currently air on GSN.
Episode #111 of Password Plus, the first episode of the Elaine Joyce & George Peppard week, was skipped over during the shows' original run due to Peppard's controversial rant about his true feeling regarding the rules of certain NBC game shows. The remaining 4 episodes of that particular week aired instead (June 11-14, 1979). He was never invited back because of his rant. The week after that, with Sarah Purcell & Bill Anderson, ran for 5 episodes from June 15, 18-21, 1979. To make up for the skipped episode, 6 episodes were taped the week after that with Judy Norton-Taylor & Robert Walden, and all 6 episodes aired from June 22, 25-29, 1979. The unaired episode resurfaced when GSN began airing reruns of the show in the mid-1990's.
[edit] Million Dollar Password
Million Dollar Password started airing June 1st, 2008 and was hosted by Regis Philbin who was a celebrity helper on Password Plus along with Betty White who will be a celebrity helper on Million Dollar Password. So far Rosie O'Donnell, Tony Hawk, Rachael Ray and Neil Patrick Harris have been celebrity helpers. It has been reported that Monique Coleman will air as a helper as well.
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] First Round
Both celebrities will have :30 seconds to give one word clues to their helpers. They will have 5 passwords. They can pass at anytime but it will come back at the end. Then the opposite way around. The celebrities will then switch contestants and which ever contestant has the most points at the end will win and play the second and final round.
[edit] Second Round
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The winning contestant will choose the celebrity they want to play with, as well as whether they want to receive or give the clues. Contestants have three clues and three guesses (similar to CA$HWORD) to convey a word, and 5 correct answers out of 10 passwords is required to win $10,000, with the total number of available passwords decreasing by one for each subsequent tier. Contestants who are successful on the second tier are guaranteed a minimum of $25,000 even if they fail a subsequent tier. Contestants may stop and take the money after successfully completing any tier except the second tier, because at that point they have nothing to lose if they fail.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- password-plus.com
- Password Plus at the Internet Movie Database
- Super Password at the Internet Movie Database
- Official CBS Million Dollar Password site. Has link for application
| Preceded by The $20,000 Pyramid |
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Password Plus, 1982 |
Succeeded by The $25,000 Pyramid |
